The Past Revisited

Areyne stepped lightly down the hallway.  She had hoped all went well with Sarah and Jareth.  He loved her, that much was clear, but Areyne didn’t know if Sarah could get beyond the hurt that Jareth had inflicted upon her. More than three hours had passed and it was nearly time for dinner. “Goddess be with you, Jareth.  I hope she understands.” Areyne whispered, and she opened the door to her chambers.  She stopped dead. 

“Alo my Angel.” Stark purred.  He was laid out on his back on her bed, with his head over the side.  “Where have you been hiding yourself?”  He rolled over and propped his head up with his hands.

“Leave, Stark.  There is nothing to discuss between us.  Your reason for being here was to discuss your governing possibilities with his Majesty.  Your audience with him was denied.  Your audience with me is also denied.  Leave now.”  Areyne stepped fully into the room, but left the door wide.  When Stark made no movement to leave, Areyne spoke again “Do not force me to call the guards Stark – leave.”

“You know, Areyne, I wasn’t always greeted by such hostility.  There was a time you would have begged me to stay in your bed just a bit longer.” Stark licked his lips and stared at the visibly enraged Areyne.  His comment angered and nauseated her.  It took all of her strength not to call upon her magic to force him to leave, or to do far worse.

Areyne shuddered at the memories.  In her youth, Stark had courted her, but it was short lived.  He had once been a romantic youth, full of desire and ambition.  But his ambition proved a far more enticing lover than the young fae maiden, and Stark began the studies of majiks.  Once she recognized his descent into the pith, the darkness, she had ceased their courting.  She had asked him to step away from the dark arts, she tried everything she had known, he had refused, and she had felt the backlash of his anger.  The scar she bore on her right hand and the scars she carried in her mind were a testament to that anger.  She had gone to his mother, but the elder fae refused to believe and marked Areyne’s accusations up to a scorned lovers rebuke and nothing more.  “Stark, I ask you again to leave.  If you do not, I cannot be held responsible for what will transgress in this room.”

“Oh, you talk so sweetly, my little Angel, but alas – you had your time.  Your friged body interests me as much as a goblin’s.  I only came to ask you a favor.”

“A favor?” Areyne was curious but knew better than to trust in Stark – he was a master of language and often used it to manipulate the situation as he had done with his mother.  He had claimed Areyne had wanted to marry him, wanted to gain position with the counsel through his lineage, and when he ended their courtship, she became scorned and began to disgrace his name.  And Areyne had played right into it – in her desire to protect Stark, she had raced into the Queens chamber and began to recount the stories of Stark studying majiks and of other darker deeds.  She must have seemed crazed.

In an instant, Stark flipped back off of the bed and landed on his feet with his eyes meeting stern faced fae, jolting her from her memories  “I need you to speak to the Goblin King on my behalf.  He will listen to you.  He respects you, though the Goddess knows why. Though neither you nor family name hold any sway within the fourth kingdom any longer and your regal name is worth less than a firiy’s left hand, Jareth still seems to think you of noble blood.”

Areyne stood stone faced.  After she had pleaded with Stark’s mother, the woman had declared her “ill” and had banished her from the fourth kingdom, she had also stripped her of her family’s name. 

“And why would I speak to him on your behalf?  I am appalled by your presence even more than he is.  You are a liar and fool.  And I know you had a hand in far more than you have ever admitted to me.  I know you are responsible for the banishment of the only man I ever loved.”

Biting back the urge to lay a backhand across her face, Stark calmly replied “Tell him I am no longer interested in any kind of governing power or position within this pitiful kingdom.  Tell him I am content in my place as heir apparent within the fourth kingdom and that I have no desire to seek his council.  Tell him I will be leaving shortly and returning home.  Tell him that I only request his presence at my departure to apologize for my behavior this afternoon toward his whore.  Could you deliver that message, Lover?”  Stark tilted his head to the side, his face held no expression.

Areyne tried to read his face, tried harder to read his emotions, and finally tried to read his mind, but the dark majiks he employed blocked her every scry.  Cautiously she replied “She is his chosen, Stark.”

“Well, whatever it is, I am sure I must have offended it.  Not that it matters, really.  Will you deliver my message?”

Again Areyne tried to determine what game the fae was playing “I will deliver your message, Stark.”

“Good.  I am off to pack.  Let him know that I will be leaving by high suns tomorrow.  Now, if you will excuse me, Angel, I have much to do.”  He turned to exit, his boots clicking on the floor.  As he reached the door, he stopped and looked back over his shoulder, “If you get lonely tonight, my Angel, you will have to find your entertainment some other place than by my side.  Perhaps with one of those dark elves you are ever so fond of”  He winked and turned to leave again, but Areyne’s voice stopped him cold.

“Stark.  I will deliver your message, but I will also deliver what I feel your intentions may be.”  Stark continued out the door and headed down the hall, his boots clicking into nothing.

The two strolled along the garden paths talking quietly.  The suns had begun their descent in the sky and the entire flowering path was drenched in a bronzed hue.  After his admission in the study, she had said she needed some air.  He had asked if she wanted to be alone and she had grasped his hand as if it were a lifeline.  She had looked into his eyes “How am I to learn to trust you alone?”  And from there, the two had begun to walk. They had been talking for hours, talking about everything.  Jareth had explained the Underground and Aboveground relationship – how they were cyclical.  How one could not exist without the other, yet if the Aboveground were to know, it would destroy the Underground.  About the trials Sarah had encountered in the Labyrinth, and how she was never in any true harm.  About how he would not have turned Toby into a Goblin, how he would have kept the boy as an heir.  About how desperately he had wanted her to stay by his side and rule the fifth kingdom of the Underground.  About how her rejection had shattered him – and how he had grown from it.  And she talked – about her anger at his taking of Toby, and her missing memories, and her anger at her father’s betrayal – and Jareth’s.  By the end of the talking, both were emotionally exhausted.  As the suns nearly dropped behind the horizon, Sarah fell to the ground and sat looking down at her lap.  Jareth followed suit and rested beside her.

“Jareth,” Sarah began looking up “Why bring me back?  Why now?” The question had haunted her all day, this day that seemed longer than any other in her life, but one she never wanted to end for fear that she would awaken and forget everything.

“Why wish to come back?  Sarah, we are intertwined, you and I.  From the moment you first opened the book and entered my world, I needed you.  Since long before that, I wanted you.” He paused, staring deep into her eyes “From the moment you first read those words, I fell in love with you.”  The look of fear and confusion on Sarah’s face, urged Jareth to continue “Sarah – shhhh – don’t speak yet, please let me finish.  Yes, I love you.  I always have.  I am not asking you to love me in return just yet, I know you far better than you know me, know this place.  I only ask that you give me the chance to show you this world, and your place in it by my side.  Search your heart, Sarah, remember your dreams, and you will find that you know me and know this world far better than you think.  I told you that I visited you so often after you left in your dreams.”  Jareth saw a look of concern growing on the woman’s face.  “What is it?”

“It’s just, I,” she stopped and played with her skirt avoiding his gaze “I was never able to remember my dreams after I left the Labyrinth.  I always felt so safe and…and wonderful when I awoke from dreams, so loved, but I never remembered.”

“Take hold of your pendant,” Jareth said “take hold, and you will remember.”

Sarah looked into his eyes, they held no lies and no tricks.  With a deep breath to steady her nerves, Sarah took hold of the pendant and closed her eyes.

Images flooded through Sarah’s mind, colors and places and friends from a long time passed, but always him by her side.  All of those dreams she had thought lost twirled and danced in her mind like frantic dancers at a mystical party.  A ballroom and a dance, a long walk through a forest, sitting upon a hillside with her head cradled in his lap, overlooking a canyon while the sun set, riding fantastic horses through a glen – it was as if they had been by each others side for years traveling and experiencing so many things – and then a conversation broke through, she felt so young, it was just after she had left the Labyrinth.  The two of them sat quietly facing each other on a bluff talking of what had happened, of misunderstandings, and of a future together, of how she would not remember any of this, but how in time, if she would allow him to, he would come back to her and take her here, to the Underground. 

Memory upon memory flowed through her mind, and as she blinked open her eyes, she found herself blinking away tears and staring into concerned mismatched eyes.

“Sarah, you should eat something and rest now. So much has happened to you and you have recalled so much, you must be exhausted.”

Sarah did look and feel exhausted.  It was as though she had lived five years in two days, and her mind swirled with emotions and feelings and memories she had yet to give order to.  “Umm, yes, I suppose you are right.  I should…”  she leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes “I am so tired.”

“Yes, I know, but you need to eat something.  I will send for Areyne and ask her to take you back to your chamber.”

“But we are so far from the castle and…” her words trailed into nothing as she opened her eyes to find that they had returned once more to the throne room.

“I would have taken you back to your room,” he said with a devilish smile, “but I would not want to intrude.”

Just then, Areyne walked into the room “You asked for me Jareth?”  She looked worried, Jareth noted immediately.

“Yes,” he replied, immediately reading her emotional unease and urgency “could you please find someone to take Sarah back to her room and bring her something to eat.  She has had a very trying day.”

“Of course.” She replied then, in her mind Jareth, we need to speak immediately, there is a possible situation.  And with those thoughts, Areyne hurriedly left.

“Rest now, my Sarah, your mind will sort through everything come morning, I promise.  And if you wish to return home, I will not hinder your return.”

“Jareth,” Sarah began, her voice shaking with uncertainty, but also filled with a hope that what she had been experiencing these last few hours was real, was tangible “I can’t promise I will want to stay,” she began, slowly rising to her feet.  Jareth steadied her as she rose, her whole body was drained and she ached for a warm bath. “but I need to know if all of what I remember is real and if it is, then…….”

“Lady Sarah,” Areyne’s voice broke the moment.  Instantly she cringed, knowing she had interrupted a personal moment.  “I am so sorry for the intrusion,”

“Not at all,” Jareth said quietly.  Looking into Sarah’s tortured eyes, “We will talk in the morning.  Now rest.” He leaned in to kiss her forehead, but stopped, and instead simply led her to where Areyne stood at the entrance to the throne room. 

“Raglit will see to your needs, my lady,” Areyne commented and led Sarah to the door.  A plump goblin hopped to Sarah’s side and took her hand and began to pull her towards the door.  Sarah cast a concerned look back to Jareth and Areyne.  “Don’t worry, Sarah, Raglit is a fine caretaker and will see to all of your needs.  Should you need me, should you need anything at all, clasp the pendant I gave you and just picture where you want to be.  All will be fine.”  With a quiet smile and with eyes that said ‘thank you’ Sarah left the room with the bouncing goblin leading the way.